“Here, make sure the rats can’t escape.” I placed my hands over the mesh that now caged the rats in and looked up at Dean. He had found a halogen heater from somewhere. He placed some batteries in it and moved over to the mesh. I moved my hand away and he placed it on top.
He looked at me. “This will make the process go quicker. The rats will get too hot and their only way of escape is…” He motioned down with his finger. That was the reason for the hole at the bottom. “I don’t know how long it will take. He’ll be dead soon anyway. We need to wait it out for a couple of hours to see how it progresses.” I nodded and watched as Dean tied the heater to the top of the mesh. “I won’t put it on too hot. Just hot enough to make the rats work faster.”
Dean got to work. It made me realize just how strange this situation really was. Normally, it was me who was capturing and torturing people for Dean, not the other way around. I normally got paid a handsome wage for doing so, too. However, Dean wasn’t asking for anything and I knew he wouldn’t. He was doing it to help a friend, which was something I never thought Dean and I would ever become. Sure, we had known each other for years, and despite the odd banter we had now and then, Dean always kept it strictly business. He actually revealed to me once that he didn’t like people to get too close to him. If he let anyone in, his weaknesses would soon be revealed, making him vulnerable. Back then, I understood that side of him, but I also knew he didn’t need to be that person anymore. It wasn’t truly him. It was the huge misunderstanding he had with Tyler that made him into that man. Day by day, I could see Tyler bringing out the boy she once knew him to be. And, day by day, Dean was letting her. He was welcoming it.
That’s why I knew tonight was a big deal for him. To help out a friend, he was again being the man he had been trying to run away from. I knew it was taking a lot for him to do this and I knew he was going to worry about Tyler and what she was going to think of him once he got back. Because, no matter how far Dean ran and hid, his roots would always catch up with him.
“Do you want to get some coffee? I know an all-night diner we could go to?”
Dean’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. “Fuck, man, do you know where everything is now? You’re like a fucking Sat Nav.”
Dean smiled, then frowned in annoyance at scumbag’s muffled screams. “At least that’s better than being called fucktard.” He smiled. “Come, let’s go. This piece of shit’s giving me a headache.”
Dean turned and I followed him to the car. “Aren’t you worried that someone will come whilst we’re away?”
Dean shook his head. “If someone does come, he’ll already be dead and we won’t be here. We can come back later. Don’t worry. I’ll be careful when we drive back. I’m sure the flashing lights of police cars will alert us first.”
I nodded and got in the car. As we were driving down the dirt road we had come in on, I looked at Dean. “Thanks for tonight, Dean. I know that took a lot for you to do, you know…with Tyler and everything.”
Dean looked worried for a moment, but shook his head with a smile. “What are friends for, eh?”
I regarded him for a moment as a question whirled around in my head. I wondered whether to ask, then just blurted it out, “When was the first time you saw a dead body?”
Dean laughed. “Shit, Jimmy, you just go in for the kill, don’t ya?”
I shrugged. “I’m just curious, I guess.”
Dean sighed and looked out the window. “I was brought up in a long line of Scozzari’s. Every member was a criminal. It was just the life they led. But when my parents had me, they wanted to try and change. We moved when I was eight and tried to settle down in a better area. Little by little, they tried to worm out of jobs, but the ties were too strong. As you know, we had enemies.” He looked over at me for a second before focusing back on the road.
“The Pinzanos.”
Dean nodded. “The Pinzanos. They were a rival family out to get to the top. They wanted to rule, but first they wanted to devour. They heard that my family was trying to move away from that way of life, but instead of embracing that, they wanted us all eradicated. They wanted to remove every last Scozzari so there was never any chance of us taking over again in the future.
“With my family, there was always one last job to do. Always something they needed to get out of the way.” He took a deep breath and I could see in his eyes that something bad was coming up.
“When I was sixteen, my parents took me to my uncle’s club. It was no big thing as I often went with them. Most of the time, I sat down and just drank my coke and nodded my head to the beat of the music. However, this particular night, I got curious. I knew my mum and dad had disappeared into my uncle’s basement, so I slid off my seat and made my way down there. I wanted to know what they were up to. I wanted to know who my parents truly were.”